Documentary is a challenging art form. It can take you to challenging situations—war zones, harsh climates—and it can introduce you to challenging people. And on a day-to-day basis, there are the uncertainties of fundraising and the daunting prospects of sustaining a career and having a life. At a certain point in the trajectory, you retreat and assess the fact that while the path you're on is your purpose and your passion, even that which defines you can take an emotional and psychological toll. The help you really need goes beyond filmmaking and fundraising. That was the epiphany for
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Perhaps it is not surprising that in a community so deeply rooted in social issue activism and environmental concerns, the word "sustainability" would eventually become such a common-place term in the documentary field. Nor is it surprising, given the widespread disruptions in the marketplace wrought by digital platforms and other changes, that sustainability—both for filmmakers and for the broader documentary ecosystem—would become a critical issue for documentary practitioners and industry players. Filmmaker Maggie Bowman describes the conversations around sustainability "as a kind of
During every phase of production, documentary filmmakers are required to articulate their expansive artistic vision and months or years of work in a few compelling sentences. In pre-production and production, succinct summaries are pitched to funders and collaborators, and in pitch forums. To reach the distribution finish line, post-production may require pitching to festivals, distributors, commissioning editors, broadcasters and other gatekeepers. And finally, when the film finds distribution, the filmmaker pitches to the media, viewing audiences, influencers and issue-centered
Joshua Glick's meticulously researched book, Los Angeles Documentary and the Production of Public History, 1958-1977, melds, as its title states, a practical approach to documentary studies with the less well-defined field of public history. The website for the National Council on Public History explains, "The public history 'movement' emerged in the United States and Canada in the 1970s, gaining visibility and influence through the establishment of public and applied history programs at universities" and "…retains characteristics of a movement through the on-going commitments of many current
When Tom White invited me chose the film I'd most want to have with me should I be left on a desert island, I found the challenge insurmountable. After all, I had programmed, along with dear colleagues, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival for 10 years before beginning to make films myself. I had too many favorites to name, too many filmmakers I admired, and too many films that inspired me in life and in practice. The list was ridiculous; I knew I needed to answer a key question: If stuck on that island, would I ever get off? If not, then the film would need to help me cope with the end of
Dear IDA Community: I recently had the opportunity to lead a seminar on documentary film with high school students at the California State Summer School for the Arts. I don’t teach often and I was a little daunted about how I could engage high schoolers, albeit ones who have already engaged deeply in the arts. I wanted to get a sense of who was in the room and what films that they had seen that had resonated with them, so I asked them to tell me about those films. Frankly, I was blown away both by their choices. They cited films such as Elizabeth Lo's Hotel 22 and Yance Ford's Strong Island
The First Amendment forbids laws that abridge freedom of the press. For this reason, federal, state and local law in the US can't compel a journalist to obtain permission from someone involved in the subject matter of a news story before including them in the story. Documentary filmmakers reporting on newsworthy matters are members of the press. Then why, you ask, does any documentary filmmaker or other journalist bother to obtain permission in the form of an appearance release from anyone if the First Amendment would save them the trouble? Actually, not all journalists obtain appearance
Don't let these photos of gear fool you. Over the course of my nearly three-decade-long career, I have almost never brought the same gear on a shoot twice. And I have almost always forgotten something crucial. People, mainly soundpeople, have been saving my day for years! Let me advocate here for how strongly I believe in developing ongoing relationships with soundpeople and working with the same ones as consistently as possible. Over the course of my career, I have mainly worked with the great Wellington Bowler, Judy Karp and Sean O'Neil. The better your relationship with a soundperson, the
Dear Readers, At some point, following the tentative steps we take out of college, with our degrees and diplomas at hand and a daunting mountain of debt to deal with, we find ourselves on a career path—beginning with our first jobs and the first time we fill in the "Occupation" box on our tax returns. If we're lucky, our career/occupation/line of work morphs into something deeper—a livelihood, a calling, a passion, a purpose. The documentary career—well, purpose—is a daunting one that can take you to thrilling and dangerous places, that can open your mind to a trove of ideas, that can expand
Filmmaker Steve James earned the first Best Documentary Oscar nomination of his distinguished career earlier this year for Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, a film that took him far from his home turf of Chicago to New York's Chinatown. But he's back on more familiar ground with his latest project, the Starz documentary series America to Me. Across 10 episodes, James weaves the stories of a group of mostly minority students navigating life at racially-diverse OPRF—Oak Park and River Forest High School—a stone's throw from where he lives in suburban Chicago. "The location is three blocks from my